Pochuck Mountain

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Pochuck Mountain
Pochuck Mountain.jpg
White Birch Road within the Scenic Lakes community leading down one of the southwestern peaks of Pochuck Mountain.
Highest point
Elevation 1,194 ft (364 m)
Prominence 695 ft (212 m)
Coordinates 41°12′40″N74°31′50″W / 41.21111°N 74.53056°W / 41.21111; -74.53056
Geography
Location Sussex County, New Jersey / Orange County, New York, U.S.
Parent range Appalachian Mountains
Topo map USGS Pochuck Mountain

Pochuck Mountain is a ridge in the New York-New Jersey Highlands region of the Appalachian Mountains. Pochuck Mountain's summit and most of its peaks lie within Vernon Township, Sussex County, New Jersey, although the south-western portion of the ridge lies within Hardyston Township, and the north-eastern tip of the ridge extends over the New York state line into Orange County. The ridge marks the eastern edge of the Great Appalachian Valley, and it divides the watersheds of the Wallkill River and its tributary Pochuck Creek. The two rivers meet at Pochuck Neck, marking the terminus of the ridge.

Contents

Etymology

The name Pochuck is a Lenape word meaning "out-of-the-way place." It may have been named so because it is an outlier of the New York-New Jersey Highlands, separated from the rest of the region by the Vernon Valley. [1] This separation gives Pochuck Mountain an unusually high prominence of approximately 695 feet.

Geography

Pochuck Mountain and Wawayanda Mountain to the east form the borders of the Vernon Valley, an important farming and mining area of New Jersey drained by Pochuck Creek. Immediately to the northwest of the ridge lies the Black Dirt Region, which is drained by the Wallkill River. Both valleys are part of an elongated lowland region known as the Great Appalachian Valley that divides the Appalachian Mountains for hundreds of miles. Due to the unusual positioning of Pochuck Mountain relative to the neighboring mountains, the Vernon Valley is a somewhat isolated prong of the rest of the Great Appalachian Valley.

Watershed

As the entire mountain is drained by the Wallkill River and its tributary Pochuck Creek, the region lies completely within the Wallkill River watershed. The Wallkill River flows northeast until it joins Rondout Creek near Rifton, New York. Rondout Creek then tributes the Hudson River in Kingston, New York. The Hudson River ultimately drains into the Atlantic Ocean via the New York Harbor.

Lakes on Pochuck Mountain include Lake Glenwood, Lake Pochung, Lake Wallkill, Pleasant Valley Lake, Tall Timbers Lake, Lake Panorama, Louemma Lake, and Scenic Lakes (2 manmade lakes in the Scenic Lakes community). Their waters are used for a variety of recreational purposes including fishing, swimming, boating and ice skating.

Mountain passes

Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail runs over the top of the ridge within Wawayanda State Park, north of the summit.

Geology

Pochuck (center) seen from the north Black Dirt Region.jpg
Pochuck (center) seen from the north

Pochuck Mountain is part of the Reading Prong of the New England Uplands subprovince of the New England province of the Appalachian Highlands. In fact, it is the northernmost ridge of the Reading Prong in New Jersey. The rocks that form Pochuck Mountain are comprised from the same belt that make up nearby Wawayanda Mountain. This belt consists of ancient crystalline metamorphic rocks. As such, the New England province as a whole, along with the similarly composed Blue Ridge province further south, are often together referred to as the Crystalline Appalachians.

The Crystalline Appalachians extend as far north as the Green Mountains of Vermont and as far south as the Blue Ridge Mountains, although a segment of the belt between the Reading Prong and South Mountain in Pennsylvania does not break the Earth's surface. The Crystalline Appalachians are distinct from the parallel Sedimentary Appalachians which run from Georgia to New York. The nearby Kittatinny Mountains are representative of these sedimentary formations.

Portions of the Reading Prong in New Jersey are known to contain Uranium deposits, linked to reported Radon contamination in certain residential areas developed on the prong. [2] The naturally occurring Radon (226Ra) is a product of the decay chain of the Uranium isotope 238U. [3]

Wildlife

Mammals inhabiting Pochuck Mountain include black bear, white-tailed deer, opossum, foxes, raccoons, squirrels, skunk, bobcat, fisher, porcupine, coyote bats, chipmunks, groundhogs and field mice.

Industry

While the developed portions of Pochuck Mountain have largely been put to residential use, the mountain and its foothills have historically been a center for mining. In 1871, the South Vernon extension of the Sussex Railroad from Hamburg to McAfee (paralleling present-day Route 94) serviced iron ore mining operations on the east side of the ridge in Vernon Township. Today, a substantial portion of the southwestern face of the ridge near Scenic Lakes is being used by Raia Industries to support gneiss mining, which has raised substantial concern among local residents with regard to environmental degradation and habitat loss for native and migratory species.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wallkill River</span> Tributary of Rondout Creek in New York and New Jersey

The Wallkill River, a tributary of the Hudson, drains Lake Mohawk in Sparta, New Jersey, flowing from there generally northeasterly 88.3 miles (142.1 km) to Rondout Creek in New York, just downstream of Sturgeon Pool, near Rosendale, with the combined flows reaching the Hudson at Kingston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rondout Creek</span> River in New York, United States

Rondout Creek is a 63.3-mile-long (101.9 km) tributary of the Hudson River in Ulster and Sullivan counties, New York, United States. It rises on Rocky Mountain in the eastern Catskills, flows south into Rondout Reservoir, part of New York City's water supply network, then into the valley between the Catskills and the Shawangunk Ridge, where it goes over High Falls and finally out to the Hudson at Kingston, receiving along the way the Wallkill River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long Path</span> Hiking trail from George Washington Bridge to Mohawk River valley in upstate New York

The Long Path is a 357-mile (575 km) long-distance hiking trail beginning in New York City, at the West 175th Street subway station near the George Washington Bridge and ending at Altamont, New York, in the Albany area. While not yet a continuous trail, relying on road walks in some areas, it nevertheless takes in many of the popular hiking attractions west of the Hudson River, such as the New Jersey Palisades, Harriman State Park, the Shawangunk Ridge and the Catskill Mountains. It offers hikers a diversity of environments to pass through, from suburbia and sea-level salt marshes along the Hudson to wilderness and boreal forest on Catskill summits 4,000 feet (1,220 m) in elevation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kittatinny Mountain</span> Ridge in northwestern New Jersey

Kittatinny Mountain is a long ridge traversing primarily across Sussex County in northwestern New Jersey, running in a northeast-southwest axis, a continuation across the Delaware Water Gap of Pennsylvania's Blue Mountain. It is the first major ridge in the far northeastern extension of the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian Mountains, and reaches its highest elevation, 1,803 feet, at High Point in Montague Township. Kittatinny Mountain forms the eastern side of Wallpack Valley; the western side comprises the Wallpack Ridge (highest elevation: 928 feet above sea level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wawayanda Creek</span>

Wawayanda Creek is the name of Pochuck Creek above its confluence with the tributary Black Creek. It is 17.0 miles (27.4 km) long. Wawayanda Creek, via Pochuck Creek, is a tributary of the Wallkill River in Sussex County, New Jersey in the United States. It starts northeast of Warwick, New York, and runs southwest, mostly within Orange County, flowing into New Jersey for several miles to its confluence with Black Creek just north of Highland Lakes, forming Pochuck Creek, which flows north back into New York.

Pochuck Creek is an 8.1-mile-long (13.0 km) tributary of the Wallkill River in Orange County, New York and Sussex County, New Jersey, in the United States.

New Jersey is a very geologically and geographically diverse region in the United States' Middle Atlantic region, offering variety from the Appalachian Mountains and the Highlands in the state's northwest, to the Atlantic Coastal Plain region that encompasses both the Pine Barrens and the Jersey Shore. The state's geological features have impacted the course of settlement, development, commerce and industry over the past four centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Dirt Region</span> Fertile agricultural area in New Jersey, USA

The Black Dirt Region is located in southern Orange County, New York and northern Sussex County, New Jersey. It is mostly located in the western section of the Town of Warwick, centered on the hamlet of Pine Island. Some sections spill over into adjacent portions of the towns of Chester, Goshen and Wawayanda in New York and parts of Wantage and Vernon, New Jersey. Before the region was drained, around 1880 by the Polish and Volga German immigrants through drainage culverts and the construction of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, it was a densely-vegetated marsh known as the "Drowned Lands of the Wallkill".

Salt Pond Mountain is a mountain located in Giles County, Virginia. The mountain, which is part of the Ridge-and-valley province of the Appalachian Mountains, extends about seven miles (12 km) from southwest to northeast. The highest peak is Bald Knob, at the southeast end, south of Mountain Lake. Salt Pond Mtn. joins Johns Creek Mountain at the southwest end, and the Big Mountain – Potts Mountain ridge at the northeast end, just south of West Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wawayanda Mountain</span>

Wawayanda Mountain is a ridge in the New York-New Jersey Highlands region of the Appalachian Mountains. The summit lies within Sussex County, New Jersey.

The Reading Prong is a physiographic subprovince of the New England Uplands section of the New England province of the Appalachian Highlands. The prong consists of mountains made up of crystalline metamorphic rock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kittatinny Valley</span>

The Kittatinny Valley is a section of the Great Appalachian Valley in Sussex and Warren counties in northwestern New Jersey that is bounded on the northwest by Kittatinny Mountain, and in the southeast by the New Jersey Highlands region. The valley is roughly 40 miles (64 km) long, with a breadth of 10 to 13 miles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marlboro Mountains</span> Mountain in the United States

The Marlboro Mountains, sometimes Marlborough Mountains, are a group of hogbacked mountains arranged in a 25-mile-long (40 km) ridge extending from Newburgh, New York, to just south of Kingston, New York. Considered to be part of the Ridge and Valley Appalachians, the mountains, which reach elevations over 1,100 feet, form an imposing geologic barrier just west of the Hudson River. They subdivide the relatively flat Hudson River Valley to create the Wallkill Valley further west. Rising abruptly on their eastern flanks, the Marlboro Mountains are known for their sweeping views of the region.

Pochuck may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wallkill Valley</span>

The Wallkill Valley is a broad valley extending through southeastern New York and northwestern New Jersey. It is composed of rolling hills, plains, and swamps surrounding the Wallkill River. The valley is a subdivision of the larger Hudson Valley, bound to the west by the Shawangunk Ridge/Kittatinny Mountains and to the east by the Marlboro Mountains and New York–New Jersey Highlands. The northern Wallkill Valley is sometimes associated with the greater Catskills region, although it is geographically separated from the Catskill Mountains by the Shawangunk Ridge and Rondout Valley. In a broader sense, the Wallkill Valley is part of the Ridge-and-Valley physiographic province of the Appalachian Mountains, while the Catskills further to the north and west are part of the Appalachian Plateau.

The Hamburg Mountains are a range of the New York-New Jersey Highlands region of the Appalachian Mountains. The summit, reaching a height of 1,473 feet (449 m), lies within Sussex County, New Jersey.

The Pimple Hills are a range of the New York-New Jersey Highlands region of the Appalachian Mountains. The summit, reaching a height of 1,122 feet (342 m), lies within Sussex County, New Jersey.

The Sparta Mountains are a range of the New York-New Jersey Highlands region of the Appalachian Mountains. The summit, reaching a height of 1,230 feet, lies within Sussex County, New Jersey.

Upper Greenwood Lake is a census-designated place (CDP) in Passaic and Sussex counties, New Jersey, United States. It includes residential neighborhoods around the northern and central parts of its namesake lake. It is primarily in West Milford Township in Passaic County but extends to the northwest into Vernon Township in Sussex County. It is bordered to the west by Wawayanda State Park, to the southeast by Abram S. Hewitt State Forest, and to the northeast by the town of Warwick in Orange County, New York.

References

  1. Hikes in the Mid-Atlantic States
  2. The Pennsylvania Radon Story
  3. "Principal Decay Scheme of the Uranium Series". Archived from the original on 2008-10-25. Retrieved 2008-08-01.